Sunday, April 6, 2014

A's Take Series Finale

On Sunday the Oakland Athletics came back from an
early three-run deficit to defeat the visiting Seattle Mariners 6-3.
A's starter Sonny Gray looked shaky in the early going; his pitch
count after just two innings stood at 47. But after Brandon Moss
belted a three-run homer in the third inning, Gray and a trio of
relievers allowed only three Mariner hits the rest of the way. Josh
Donaldson singled in what turned out to be the winning run in the
fifth inning, and Yoenis Cespedes capped the scoring with a home run
to right-center in the eighth. Two of the three runs given up by Gray
in his six innings of work were unearned. Other notes:

* Sam Fuld, who started in right field
in place of the slow-out-of-the-blocks Josh Reddick, continues to
impress. He threw out (almost Reddick-like) Abraham Almonte trying to
go from first to third on Brad Miller's single to right. Fuld also
made a nice diving grab to deprive Logan Morrison of a hit. In the
post-game press conference, A's manager Bob Melvin, citing Fuld's
versatility in the field -- he's already played all three outfield
positions in this, the first week of the season -- called the Stanford
product “a unique talent.”

* Moss's homer turned a 3-0 deficit
into a 3-3 tie. That's the beauty of baseball: one swing of the bat
can completely change the character of a game. And Sonny Gray looked
like a different pitcher after Moss's blast; he set down nine of the
next ten batters. Was it the psychological lift provided by the first
run support the young hurler's gotten this season, or did he make
mechanical adjustments?

* Melvin lost a replay challenge in the
fourth inning. Sam Fuld rounded first and was tagged as he slid back
to the bag. (He was called out.) Teams are now allowed to show
challenged plays on the in-stadium Jumbotron; this particular replay
convinced many at the Coliseum that Fuld was safe. Lusty booing
greeted the decision to uphold the ump's ruling. Which is to say, the
new replay rule did little, in this case, to clear things up in the
minds of fans . . . .